Milan Lukic pleads not guilty during his initial appearance

Milan Lukic, 38, made his initial appearance before the Judge Bonomy at ICTY today and pleaded “not guilty” to 21 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for murders, beatings and other acts.  His attorney, Michael Karnavas said that the defense was entering a plea of not guilty to each and every count and to every word in the indictment. 

Lukic is considered by some not to be a war criminal as such, but simply a criminal.  Most of his crimes were not committed on the battlefield, nor did he even face combat and a fair fight.  Rather, the crimes he is accused of were directed at the most vulnerable and innocent.  But he is no ordinary criminal.  The stories of his atrocities have been well documented – writing in The Guardian¸ Ed Vulliamy detailed how Lukic pushed Muslim inhabitants of Visegrad – people he grew up with – off the famous bridge spanning the Drina River – shooting them on the way down.  He stands accused of locking approximately 140 of people into two houses – women, children and the elderly, and then incinerating the buildings.  An ICTY trial chamber had previously described Milan Lukic and his associates as “one of the most violent paramilitary groups” operating in South-Eastern Bosnia.  Hundreds died at their hands and according to Chuck Sudetic, a former investigator for the ICTY who profiled Lukic in his book Blood and Vengeance,  Milan Lukic may have personally killed more people in the Bosnian war than anybody else.  When I asked Sudetic recently if this was the case even when compared to Srebrenica trigger-pullers, he informed me that witnesses have actually  placed Lukic in Potocari, near Srebrenica during the July 1995 genocide, allegedly participating in the killings there as well.  A witness testifying in the Krstic case also placed Lukic in the vicinity of Srebrenica.

A long time in arriving

While the crimes for which he is charged took place mostly during 1992, he was not indicted by the ICTY until late October 1998.   He was only arrested in Argentina in August of 2005 and finally transferred to The Hague this week.  It did not have to be this way.  Lukic was actually in Serbian custody in 1994, held, in part for allegedly kidnapping and murdering over a dozen Muslim and Croat civilians who were aboard a train running between Belgrade and Montenegro.  Instead of trial in Belgrade, Lukic was “extradited” to the Republika Srpska and returned to a “hero’s welcome” according to Sudetic.  Only in 2003 did the Serb authorities finally press a case against Lukic, who was convicted in absentia for the 1992 killing of 16 Muslims traveling from Serbia to Bosnia aboard a bus – the incident, referred to as the Sjeverin case (after the domicile of the victims) was reportedly one of the most serious crimes to have taken place in Serbia proper during the Balkan wars.

Issues over possible transfer of the case to Bosnia

The Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) filed a request last February to have Lukic’s case transferred to Bosnia and Herzegovina under Rule 11 bis.   In December of 2005, however, the OTP filed a motion to have the referral bench suspend consideration of his transfer.  (The OTP did not request suspension of Rule 11bis proceedings against Milan’s co-accused, Sredoje Lukic, however.)  Given the severity of the crimes alleged, the case may likely remain in The Hague. 

Judge Bonomy noted that since the OTP’s suspension was premised on Lukic’s absence from the ICTY, now that he has arrived, transfer may once again become a “live issue.”  The OTP suspended, but did not withdraw its Rule 11bis motion however, meaning the possibility of referral remains.  This may be a tactic on the part of OTP to compel Lukic to cut a deal and plead guilty or provide evidence against others.   The threat of being sent back to Bosnia for trial has worried many Bosnian Serb defendants who have vigorously opposed these transfers.

Lukic’s attorney Karnavas told the court that it was his understanding that Argentinean authorities transferred the Accused to the ICTY on the condition that he not be then transferred to Sarajevo.  Karnavas also suggested that it might be acceptable for Lukic could to be transferred to Belgrade for trial.

One of Lukic’s associates, Mitar Vasiljevic was convicted and sentenced to 15 years for many of the same crimes Lukic is charged with.  Therefore, the case against Lukic should be relatively straight forward to present and can employ much of the same evidence used to convict Vasiljevic. 

Lukic is distantly related to fellow-ICTY indictees Sredoje Lukic and former Serbian Police General in charge of Kosovo, Sreten Lukic.